Daryl Hannah discusses fracking in Loveland visit

Arise Music Festival provided an opportunity to exchange thoughts on environmental issues with celebrity activists

By James Garcia Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
08/18/2013 09:04:05 PM MDT

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, 13, Julia Butterfly Hill and Daryl Hannah spoke about the environment and activism at a press conference Saturday at the Arise Music Festival at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland.
(James Garcia)

A neo-hippie festival wouldn't be living up to its potential without a strong presence of environmental awareness and celebrity activism.

Actress and activist Daryl Hannah, well-known tree sitter Julia Butterfly Hill and 13-year-old activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez talked to the media on Saturday about their thoughts on the environment, activism itself and the music festival as a vehicle for change.

"There is something about Colorado to me that is so magical and so incredible because it's nature on steroids. It's our country's Kenya," Hannah said.

The inaugural Arise Music Festival was held at the Sunrise Ranch in Loveland Aug. 14-18.

"In the seven years I've been working with Daryl, she's been arrested five times engaging in civil disobedience, three times protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. So she's well-respected as not just another Hollywood celebrity with a cause, but as someone who really is on the front lines of many issues," said festival organizer Paul Bassis.

Hannah grew a special relationship with Colorado from being sent from an apartment in Chicago to a camp in Estes Park as a child and spoke on fracking in Loveland and within the state.

The festival organizers invited Frack Free Colorado to set up booths and hand out information packets about the potentially negative effects of natural gas drilling.

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"We want to be as supportive of the immediate Loveland community as we possibly can. I know that there is a citizen group that have gathered signatures for a ballot initiative that's applying for a moratorium on fracking. We have invited all the citizen groups, under the umbrella organization called Frack Free Colorado, to have a presence here at the festival," Bassis said.

"(Raising awareness) is a lot of what Arise is doing as well. There are fracktivist booths out there, people are doing speeches on the subject. Colorado right now is in its gold-rush phase ... There are hundreds of thousands of leases in Colorado and it's f***ed up," Hannah said.

Butterfly Hill became famous for living in a 180-foot, 1,500-year-old redwood tree for 738 days between from 1997 to 1999.

"I see all land as sacred and all beings as sacred. And I feel part of the reason we're facing the challenges we're facing as a human family right now is because we don't interact with the world and each other in that way. If we did, we'd be looking at a much different world," she said.

Martinez is an environmental activist from Boulder, a leader of the Earth Guardians, a nonprofit youth organization committed to protecting the environment.

"That's one of the things that my group, Earth Guardians, is focused on is natural gas drilling in Colorado. It's really cool and really inspiring because we are having all these different cities saying they want to ban fracking: Fort Collins, Loveland, Boulder ... We know that nothing is going to get done on the federal level about fracking," he said.

The young man, whose father is of Aztec descent and whose mother inspired his activism, directed a lot of the conversation, arousing much applause from those in attendance at the conference. Later, he rapped on one of the music stages at the festival.

"I think that (the oil industry will be stopped) with lawsuits that I'm working with to get filed against the federal government for not protecting our atmosphere as part of the public trust doctrine that says all resources are to be shared and protected for future generations," Martinez said.

He added that it's the politicians' jobs to protect the people and that he believes they have failed miserably. And much in line with many of the sentiments expressed throughout the festival by the activists, artists, Frack Free Colorado representatives and Bassis himself, Martinez said its up to the people to inform others and take action.

"You just got to make sure as many people in the community are informed about the impacts of fracking, the toxic cocktail they put in the fracking fluids, how it will get into their water and wells, also the methane that goes straight into the air, which is a more potent greenhouse than (carbon dioxide) ... It can be done. We can win this fight, we just have to all show up," Hannah said.

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